'My hands are cold' - Worcester 999 crank caller avoids prison again

'My hands are cold' - Worcester 999 crank caller avoids prison again

A PERSISTENT nuisance 999 caller has again avoided prison after his latest court appearance.

Michael Sefton admitted making a number of time-wasting calls to the emergency services included one which resulted in him being arrested for having drugs, when he appeared at Worcester Magistrates Court.

Nichola Ritchie, prosecuting, told magistrates Sefton’s calls, made between October 8 and 18, breached a criminal behaviour order the 56-year-old had previously been given.

In some of the bizarre calls, Sefton told call handlers that he wanted to marry Sarah and had a ring, people were ugly, he didn’t want anything, he had got home safe, he wanted police to help find his medication, he needed an angina spray and saying he was in the military and had called 999 as his hands were cold.

Miss Ritchie said: “In total 15 calls were made by Sefton to police, none were deemed an emergency by the police.”

Miss Ritchie said that after making nuisance calls in which Sefton claimed he was in a drug induced coma, on October 8, police went out to his Little Priest Lane home to discover Sefton “didn’t require any assistance”, and in fact arrested him for possession of cannabis which officers found.

Barry Newton, defending, explained that Sefton had been in court last December for a number of matters and was given a 12-week suspended sentence. He said the nuisance 999 calls happened around the same time as those offences, and thus the 12-week suspended sentence should cover them too.

Mr Newton said Sefton suffered from mental health issues and physical difficulties, being in a wheelchair, and last year was sectioned and taken to Hill Crest, a mental health unit.

On Thursday (January 7) magistrates gave Sefton a six-week jail sentence, suspended for four months, running concurrently with his current suspended sentence.

Magistrates also told Sefton to pay £115, with the money deducted from his benefits, and ordered the destruction of the cannabis found by police.

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